Stick ons okay for handgun?

[wb_carpenter]

I cast and reload 9mm but unfortunately the 5 gal bucket I bought is about 80% stick ons. Will it be ok in my 9mm pistols?

[wb_carpenter]

I shoot mild loads around 1000fps it would be a 80/20 mix.

I could use the lead I have already molded from clip on WW(about 10lbs) and mix it in to harden it a bit.

[shotman]

wouldnt try to drive them that fast stickys are close to pure so they will bend mix is fine

[fryboy]

or trade another feller for some clip on's ....... the 9 to me is one of the higher intensity cartridges it's not as easy as loading down a 38 special or 357 mag to the alloy's velocity level but if u can get a good fit .....[shrugz]

[wb_carpenter]

Would it be possible to add anything to mixture to harden it?

[lwknight]

You can buy high antimony alloy from rotometals.com.
When adding antimony you also need extra tin.
A 2% tin mix will keep at least 6% antimony disolved and behaving.
With too little tin the antimony will crystalize and try to float out.

[wb_carpenter]

Say I used Super Hard Alloy (30%-Antimony,-70%-Lead) how many pounds would I need to dilute 100-130lbs of stick ons?

[fryboy]

http://www.lasc.us/SuperHard.htm

[lwknight]

Say I used Super Hard Alloy (30%-Antimony,-70%-Lead) how many pounds would I need to dilute 100-130lbs of stick ons?

Depends on what alloy you want to end up with .

If you want a clip-on ww equivalent , mix 1 super-hard to 9 leads then add 3 ounces of tin. Actually it goes better if you add the tin to the lead first and the super-hard lastly.

Its actually simple math.
I made a little handy spreadsheet to help
Alloy Calculator (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=17869&d=1260496796)

The radio chart was just for tin/lead

Also here is a radio chart pdf that I made for a guy
Radio Chart (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=25545&d=1285356123)

[wb_carpenter]

Obviously I was trying to go cheap by getting wheelweight and buying 15lbs of Super Hard Alloy will set me back about $45 on top of the $20 I paid for the lead. $65 for 130lbs of lead is still cheap but so am I,

I will smelt a little bit of the stick ons and try to make some bullets if they work then great if not I may ingot it all and hopefully sell/trade it for clip on WW.

I am going to look for a bucket of clip on WW(long shot) and mix them up and then if needed buy some Super Hard Alloy.

[MT Gianni]

If you post your location you could probaably work a trade.

[wb_carpenter]

Updated I am in the Fort Lauderdale area

[Rangefinder]

You can fit quite a bit of WW's in a medium flat-rate box. Seriously, there are plenty right here on this site that would likely trade you straight across pound-for-pound for clip-ons. Unless you're in a tremendous hurry to start melting something, post it in the swapping & selling section as "WTT stick-ons for Clip-ons". Bet you'd have your clip-ons in hand this time next week.

[sqlbullet]

I would mix some 80/20, water drop the bullets and try them. BHN of 9 oughta be find for 1000 fps.

That is my general rule of thumb....Try it and see. Shootin' stuff is fun.

[wb_carpenter]

You can fit quite a bit of WW's in a medium flat-rate box. Seriously, there are plenty right here on this site that would likely trade you straight across pound-for-pound for clip-ons. Unless you're in a tremendous hurry to start melting something, post it in the swapping & selling section as "WTT stick-ons for Clip-ons". Bet you'd have your clip-ons in hand this time next week.

Would it be customary to trade ingots for ingots or just the raw WW?

[wb_carpenter]

I would mix some 80/20, water drop the bullets and try them. BHN of 9 oughta be find for 1000 fps.

That is my general rule of thumb....Try it and see. Shootin' stuff is fun.

I plan on making a pound or so to play with today.

[lwknight]

Just remember that it takes a couple weeks to harden up and several weeks to get as hard as they will.

[wb_carpenter]

Just remember that it takes a couple weeks to harden up and several weeks to get as hard as they will.

even if they are water dropped? Sounds like i need to freshen up on my casting info.

the last batch had alot of time before they were cast into bullets but were water dropped.

[fryboy]

the time factor is after cast or water dropped ( quenched ) the less good stuff ( antimony ) in the alloy the longer time it takes to come up to potential hardness , also the more tin the softer they will harden too and also revert back to softer sooner ( than a higher antimony alloy ) worse the faster one tries to send the softer alloy the more problems they encounter

[lwknight]

Both air cooled and water dropped boolits age harden. Water quenched boolits harden lot more than air cooled. I believe that 80 percent of the potential hardening happens in 2 or 3 weeks.

Alloys with tin only will soften slowly from the minute that they are cast. Higher antimony offsets the tin by leaps and bounds.

I had cast some 240 grain 44 cal bullets ( air cooled ) for paper patching and expansion. The alloy was about 2 to 3 percent tin and a trace of antimony. After a few months they still got harder than I wanted. Maybe with the antimony being only a trace , the tin will soften some in time. Only time will tell.

[Rangefinder]

Would it be customary to trade ingots for ingots or just the raw WW?

All depends on who you're trading with. Usually it would be equal work for equal trade though---ingots for ingots or raw/sorted for raw/sorted.

[wb_carpenter]

I guess ill post them up for trade in raw form so how much weight does a flat rate box hold/cost and how do you guys normally transport it?

[Stick_man]

WB, you shouldn't have any problem at all in getting 70 lbs (the max) into a medium FR box if you first flatten them out. In contrast, it takes a little work to get more than 60 lbs of clip-ons into the same size box. I generally try to max the weight at about 68.5 lbs when shipping stick-ons just in case my scales are off a little.

If you purchase your postage online, you can save a little bit on shipping. An added bonus is that you don't have to wait in lines at the PO when dropping them off.

Make sure you reinforce the boxes some because wherever they go, the boxes will likely end up pretty "well rounded" and a box not well reinforced will split open.

Best of luck.

[2wheelDuke]

I'm in the Ft. Lauderdale area too. I don't have anything harder to trade for your pure though. Others have already mentioned that you can alloy it.

I don't know of anybody else on the forum any closer than WPB. I met up with that guy briefly to buy his old Lyman 450 one day.

[fredj338]

I cast and reload 9mm but unfortunately the 5 gal bucket I bought is about 80% stick ons. Will it be ok in my 9mm pistols?
As the guys noted, sitckons are nearly pure lead, not much good in the 9mm over 900fps. You might be able to get by mixing them both & water dropping, get you to 1100fps maybe, as always, bullet fit is king. Get your hands on some linotype & mix it all 3-1 & you would be good to go.